The Libertarian Party of Virginia has not fielded any official candidates since 2007 (see this list for all LP Va candidates since 1976; the most famous of the Virginia Libertarians is Roger McBride, a GOP elector who voted in 1972 for the first LP electoral team and then was the 1976 LP Presidential candidate (The 1972 LP ticket happened to be John Hospers/Theodora Nathan – Nathan is the first woman on any national ticket to garner an electoral vote!)

While I am committed to our GOP candidates this year – Cuccinelli, Del. Peace and Buddy Fowler and whoever wins the LG and AG races, I promised Sarvis and Sullivan by email I would be fair to them if they sent me stuff. I admire what they are doing very much. There is a certain romance about running for office as a third party. You are definitely running for principle. If I ever leave the GOP, I would consider very much the LP as they are risinginimportance and it seems the Constitution Party is in danger of falling apart. (Here is the FB page for the draft Darrell Castle for the CP in 2016.)

What is the potential impact for the election? I think all the LP House candidates are long shots to win and Sarvis is too, in the Governor’s race but if the race between Cuccinelli and McAuliffe close, Sarvis could impact the race. I could see him getting 2-3%. But Virginians do not like third parties. Sullivan might have an interesting race similar to the 1997 race between Del. Reid and Libertarian Shelby McCurrin where there is no Democrat (thanks again to LP website):

Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)

Thank you Kirby for coming by. I got all those stats from the LPVa website. There could be libertarian candidates that were not officially nominated or blessed. I’d say talk to the LPVa and I am glad to see it updated.

Another thing that GOP people can do is help to level the playing field and allow people to vote their conscience by supporting ranked choice voting instead of the current first-past-the-post, winner-takes-all system we have now. Ranked choice voting completely eliminates the spoiler effect so if you really prefer the LP candidate you can give that candidate your first place ranking knowing that if that person is eliminated your vote will pass to your second place GOP choice and won’t help to get a bad (Dermocrat) guy elected.

Bill Redpath from the Virginia LP has worked toward this for years. For more information please visit http://www.fairvote.com